The Hobbit (1977)

﻿﻿﻿﻿Review by Charles Cassady Jr.​﻿The Hobbit premiered on American network TV as a Thanksgiving-period special and remains well remembered by a generation. Though it somewhat simplifies the beloved storybook in some details and has a narrative a bit structured around TV-commercial breaks, this is an entertaining and even stirring fantasy whose delicate flavor and realistically amiable hero bridge the gap between toddler fairy tales and more grownup, slightly harder-edged fantasies (especially in the third act, when "good guys" suddenly get greedy and turn against each other)...